Sacred Maiden
by Seratar
Summary: A semi-romantic one shot about an encounter between Daisuke and Riku after a particularly difficult heist. Post-island, but no specific time frame, just a thought that came into my head after listening to Sacred Maiden from the anime. If there is interest I will write more.


Sacred Maiden

Chapter 1

You Light Up the Darkness

'_It's cold…'_ Thought Daisuke Niwa

His last heist with Dark had been… eventful. The worst part had been when they had to take a dive off of a cliff to avoid the Krad's latest scheme. Of course, Dark, stating that he didn't want to have to wash his hair, had promptly transformed back into Daisuke just before hitting the water.

So now Daisuke was swimming towards the beach, all pursuit long left behind by their antics.

'_You know that I'm capable of dying of hypothermia, right Dark?' _Daisuke complained in his head.

'_Quit whining and paddle faster then!'_ Dark shot back, _'At this rate we'll be lucky if you make it home before midnight.'_

'_What's that?" _Daisuke suddenly asked.

Dark fell silent as he too realized that there was a light ahead of them. They briefly contemplated the fact that it might be the police waiting for them before realizing, as one, that the light being emitted was far too erratic to be produced by a police vehicle.

Swimming closer, Daisuke saw that there was a small fire on the beach, and a figure was sitting on a log before it. A figure he recognized well.

Ba-dump

Ba-dump

Daisuke curled in the water as his heart beat heavily, drawing out the presence of Dark.

'_Can't…'_ Dark gasped, the recent ordeal having depleted him.

Something within Daisuke stretched like a rubber band, then snapped. In that instant, Dark was gone completely from his thoughts. The realization dawned on him that Dark might have been strained by their fight with Krad for the small necklace which rested in his pocket.

'_Hah!' _He thought triumphantly to his strangely empty head, _'I knew it! You were tired!'_

"Who's there!" Riku suddenly called.

Daisuke got his footing on the sea floor and stood up, waving, "Harada-san!"

"Niwa-kun?" Riku asked, surprise evident in her voice, "What on earth are you doing swimming at this time of night? Don't you know that you could drown?"

"Eheh," He chuckled nervously, "I fell in."

Technically true.

"You what?!" Riku yelled, wading into the water, "How can you be so clumsy Niwa-kun?"

Before he could respond, the girl grabbed him by the arm and pulled him close. Daisuke could feel his cheeks try to heat as Riku drew his arm over her shoulder and dragged him back to shore. He only half-feigned the need to lean on her.

"Geez Niwa-kun," Riku said, "You're freezing! How long have you been swimming?"

Daisuke felt his eyes flutter slightly from exhaustion as he replied, "Only about twenty minutes."

Riku stared at him, then sat him down next to the fire. Before he knew what was happening the girl had unzipped the front of his jacket.

"Ah!" He yelped, trying in vain to pull away from her strong grip, "What are you doing."

"Keeping you from dying," She said, "Idiot."

Daisuke realized with growing numbness that she was right. While he had been struggling to swim he hadn't realized that every fiber of his being had grown as cold as ice. The heat from the fire was almost painful as it warmed his front, courtesy of Riku having stripped off the shirt he wore beneath Dark's jacket.

Suddenly self conscious, Daisuke blushed, "I'm sorry."

Riku hmphed, "You should be, you scared me half to death when I saw you. I didn't realize that human lips could turn that shade of blue."

Riku had taken a seat next to him, her eyes focused on him in a worried manner.

"Maybe I should call an ambulance-" She began.

"No!" Daisuke yelped, "Not that! I just need to warm up a little, that's all."

Riku regarded him for a moment, then sighed, "Boys…"

Daisuke smiled wanly. It was nice to be so close to Riku without having to worry about transforming into Dark. It was like a dream, and he found that he was wholly unwilling to wake from it.

"Neh, Harada-san-" He began.

"It's Riku," She said, a hint of annoyance entering her voice, "I told you that I wanted you to call me by my name so that I could tell if you were talking to me or my sister."

"Riku-san…" He hesitated, "What are you doing out so late?"

"I'm certainly not falling into the ocean," She said, then relaxed, her eyes focusing on the flames "When the world around me gets too hectic I like to come out here and sit. Sometimes it's with a fire, sometimes it's with the stars. It just gives me time to let it all pass me by. It makes me feel… happy."

Daisuke stared into the fire, the warmth sweeping through his body loosening all of his tightened muscles.

"Niwa-kun…" Riku said, "When did you get so, muscular?"

Daisuke blushed as Riku leaned in closer to poke at his pectoral muscles, confirming her suspicion that they were solid as a rock.

"Riku-san!" Daisuke yelped, half-jumping away from her.

Riku, realizing what she had just done, blushed a bright scarlet, "I-I'm sorry Niwa-kun. Forgive me."

"O-of course Riku-san." He stuttered.

They fell into awkward silence after that, Riku turned away from him slightly, her hands cupping her flaming cheeks.

'_What was I thinking!'_ She thought furiously, _'We had that moment on the island retreat, but I was too forward just now! What would Risa do? Think!'_

Riku's thoughts continued to circle as Daisuke's body finally let him know that he had probably pushed himself too far again. He realized that he was swaying on the log, and the last thought he had before finally succumbing to the looming darkness inside of him was that the fire made Riku-san's hair look quite pretty.

Riku had turned back to say something to Daisuke when he suddenly began slumping forward.

"Niwa-kun!" She called out to him, reaching with her hand.

She somehow manage to prevent him from face-planting into the fire. Instead, she ended up with the unconscious teen in her arms. She wrestled his weight around for a moment before finally getting his head to rest on her lap as sat in the sand.

She froze for a moment. If she had been too forward before…

Hesitantly, she reached out and stroked a lock of his hair. Daisuke's hair was the subject of great envy among the girls who shared a class with him. It's deep red matched his eyes almost perfectly, and more than one of their classmates was convinced that he dyed it. She couldn't bring herself to believe such an absurd rumor, but she decided that she was in the perfect position to know for sure.

Running a hand through his hair, she checked the roots. Sure enough, they were red. As her hand moved she heard him mutter something.

She leaned close, "Niwa-kun? Are you awake?"

"…Sacred maiden…" He whispered, his voice hoarse from the salt of the sea.

"Who?" She asked quietly, her heart fluttering.

"Riku… chan." He mumbled, then snuggled in closer to her sweatpants.

'_Sacred maiden?'_ She wondered, her hand beginning to stroke his head again, _'I wonder what that could mean?'_

In the shifting light of the flames, Riku failed to notice as Daisuke's hair flashed briefly to a deep, dark purple, then returned to its normal color.

* * *

A/N: Good evening gentle readers,

When I was in middle school a friend gave me a 'mix CD' containing several episodes of different anime to whet my appetite for the medium. That CD contained episodes 1-4 of DNAngel. I was hooked from that moment, and have since watched the anime all the way through three times. I wasn't particularly interested in the heist component of the story, but the relationships between the characters left me hungry in a way I had never felt before.

Years later, having watched the series once again, I found that I would be perfectly happy to watch a series of DaisukexRiku moments with sacred maiden playing in the background.

This is a one shot that I wrote the check the pulse of the DNAngel fandom to test if there was any real interest in a series of one shots like this.

For those of you here because you are fans of Better Angels, don't panic, I already have 3k works written and will be updating by the end of the week.

Thank you for the matchless gift of your time, I know that there are a lot of different ways you could spend it, and choosing to do so here is a treasure to me.

-Seratar


End file.
